Study finds people feel ‘shame’ when properly disconnecting from work

Unplugging from work has never been easy.

And the problem has only been exacerbated since the shift to working from home.

It became harder for workers to separate work from their personal life, whether it's setting up the work desk in the living rooms or making overtime a habit.

Now, research has emerged to show that FOSO - fear of switching off - is a real thing - and it's more common than we think.

Four researchers closely observed around 200 full-time employees for two weeks to understand how they manage their time away from their jobs and how burnout comes into play.

Workers feel like they can never be truly offline / Yasser Chalid/Jaap Arriens/Getty Images

The study, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, discovered the pressure felt by workers that stops them from being truly disconnected.

The findings showed that 'evening detachment leads to heightened next-morning shame'. Meaning, that employees who didn't were offline in the evening felt shame the following morning, and were more likely to engage in 'cheating behaviours' at work.

As a result, the researchers found that workers went out of their way to appear busier and more productive during the workday.

The study authors wrote: 'The more employees detached in the evening, the more shame they felt at work the next morning. Paradoxically, the very experience that’s supposed to rejuvenate employees made them feel bad about themselves instead — like they were problematic employees.'

'The threat of falling behind and potentially damaging their reputations made employees feel as if they had to get ‘up to speed’ by any means necessary,' they continued.

Although a lot of businesses say they encourage a work-life balance, it doesn't stop them from sending emails and messages outside of work hours.

Most employees never take off the paid time they're entitled to for fear of backlash /NurPhoto/Getty Images

Furthermore, 'managers who reward or glamorise overwork also contribute to the problem,' the authors added.

'This kind of behaviour signals that work-life balance and detachment aren’t genuine organisational priorities.

'What’s more, if managers fail to take breaks from work themselves, employees might perceive messages about detachment as lip service.'

And employers that introduced unlimited paid time off aren't a solution for the workers either, as the study found workers didn't actually use the time they were entitled to due to fear of pushback.

'Instead, firms interested in advocating for well-being should consider more-targeted policies, such as requiring employees to take a certain number of days off or setting mandatory vacation days that clearly signal that detachment is part of the job,' they shared.

Basically, you're not alone if you feel like you have to keep on your phone to check every message you receive from your boss. However, it's not a healthy lifestyle and the authors believe that we should 'think twice' before replying in order to challenge the normalcy of the 'always on' culture.